PATRIOT GAMES

What You Need To Know:

The movie PATRIOT GAMES concerns a former CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, who finds himself targeted for revenge by a group of Irish terrorists. Due to a weak script, which prompted Tom Clancy, the author of the book upon which the movie is based, to ask to have his name taken off the credits, PATRIOT GAMES moves slowly in spite of some intense action. Furthermore, it fails to achieve its mission because of its vagueness and predictability.

Content:

(B, C, LL, VVV, S, M) Love for family triumphs over evil in this film complete with a positive reference to Christian prayer and marred by: over 10 obscenities & 8 profanities; extreme, close-up, bloody violence as people have shoot-outs and fist-fights with terrorists; and, the initiation of a fornication scene cut short by a murder (no nudity).

More Detail:

The thriller PATRIOT GAMES promises more than it delivers as Harrison Ford plays former CIA analyst Jack Ryan who vows to protect his wife and daughter from Irish terrorists. Vacationing in Britain with his wife and daughter, Ryan foils a group of Irish terrorists as they attempt to kidnap a member of the royal family. In doing so, he kills the brother of the vicious terrorist, Sean Miller. Miller wants revenge, so he leads an assault against Jack’s family after they return home to Maryland. To protect his family, Ryan rejoins the CIA.

PATRIOT GAMES fails to take us deep inside the clandestine organizations, the IRA and the CIA, and the terrorists come across as a sketchy lot. Due to a weak script, which prompted Tom Clancy, the author of the book upon which the movie is based, to ask to have his name taken off the credits, PATRIOT GAMES moves slowly in spite of some intense action. Thus, the film never quite persuades the viewer concerning its mission. Even the isolated “farm house” where the Ryans live and where the final confrontation comes during a stormy night when the lights suddenly go out, seems hokey, melodramatic and contrived.